"he tried to tell the truth, but what came out was only half of the truth. Later, much later, he found that he was unable to relieve himself of two regrets: one, that when she leaned back he saw that the necklace he made had scratched her throat, and two, that in the most important moment of his life he had chosen the wrong sentence."

incandescent /adj./ 1. My husband finally got all the Christmas lights hung and our house is again dressed for the season in all its incandescent luster. For over a week, he had only the trunk of one orange tree strung with red lights. The rest of the house was dark. It looked like the burning bush, and I told David that people were going to think we worship Moses.

incandescent /adj./ 2. My heart lept with incandescent joy, when I found this card from Barb in my mail among my Christmas cards and bills. My first "good mail." I hung the card on my sewing room wall, next to my Will Rogers postcard. (I secretly think the woman in the card is incandescently giddy over her "seat assignment.")

incandescent /vt. and adj./ 3. I was thrilled to finish a few Christmas projects this week...namely the Christmas cards

and a project I have been working on as part of a gift for my girls. They are "pencil rolls," which I made and filled with markers and colored pencils. I am absolutely incandescent about the way they turned out. And I can't wait for the looks on their incandescent faces on Christmas morning.

incandescent /adj./ 4. There are moments in motherhood that are so full and sweet that it makes all the other moments "worth it." Incandescent is the only way to describe my heart as I went to Caleb's violin recital this week. He kept smiling at us throughout his performance, to reassure us that he knew what he was doing and that he was enjoying himself. I just sat there grinning at him as he played through all the variations of "Twinkle," looking up to smile at us every few measures.

He's the one with the incandescent grin in the middle of the back row.